A Very Negative Aspect of Photograph Shooting

This episode introduces Chicago Private Investigator Charlie Garrett
(Wayne Rogers) to the series, and begins with a pre-title Prologue
filmed in Black & White, and set in Coral City, Florida, in 1963.

In this Prologue, bar patrons watch a televised new report of the Lee
Harvey Oswald slaying in the aftermath of the J.F. Kennedy
assassination in Dallas, Texas, with archive footage of the actual
account.

Bernie Callan (Kevin Quigley) emerges from the bar to face the barrel
of a .45 caliber pistol in the parking lot, and he is never heard from
again for thirty years, until present day 1993, when law enforcement
officials recover a body, believed to be the remains of Bernie Callan
from a gutter, the victim of a gunshot.

Various associates of Bernie Callan from across the country then read
newspaper accounts of the report....

In Chicago, Illinois, Charlie Garrett (Wayne Rogers), who has been
investigating for more than thirty years by now, examines two envelopes
which he has received in the mail from Bernie Callan, one post-marked
November 25, 1963. Bernie has owed Charlie $3,000 for the duration, and
so Charlie heads to Coral City.

In Denver, Colorado, Bernie's only child, Laura Callan (Linda Purl),
tells her associate Hal Fredericks (Webster Williams) at the District
Attorney's office that she must leave for Coral City.

In Miama, Florida, Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) arrives to
deliver a Mystery seminar at South Florida Writers' Conferrence, where
she notices the newspaper article and also heads to Coral City, after
she notices that Laura's hotel room, across the hall from hers, has
been ransacked.

Coral City Police Chief Herman Gillis (Ben Masters) welcomes Laura and
Jessica to his office but expresses his opinion that Jessica's
Mysteries leave too many open-ended questions for his tastes, as he
prefers clear-cut resolutions, which frustrates him in this cold case,
considering that a body has been discovered after a probable
thirty-year-old murder.

Charlie Garrett arrives at Herman Gillis' office before Laura and
Jessica exodus, Charlie to request $3,000 of the $10,000 discovered in
the victim's wallet, but Herman Gillis answers that there are too many
loose ends to resolve before the spoils may be divided to rightful
claimants.

As Charlie joins forces with Laura and Jessica to figure the root of
the problem of Bernie's disappearance, Frank Hemet (Lonny Chapman)
trails the three, as Charlie catches Frank's ransacking his room at
Pink Motel, and Jessica approaches Frank to question his trailing Laura
and herself, before discovering that her hotel room has also been
ransacked, as has Laura's before hers.

FBI Agent James Whitman (Julian Christopher) enters the case, to meet
with the investigation team, when Doctor Abner Farrow (Stewart Moss)
arrives at Herman's office, presenting himself as an Instructor of
Modern History, who wishes to learn from the team (Jessica, Laura,
Charlie, Herman and James), by witnessing their meetings.

What everyone searches for would be negatives of photographs which
Bernie Callan had taken back in 1963, which may link Santo Angelini to
Lee Harvey Oswald in the days before the JFK assassination.

While FBI Agent James Whitman maintains that Oswald did not act in
conspiracy because of the (albeit possibly incomplete) findings of the
Warren Commission (the U.S. government's official investigation), the
other investigators seek for answers to potential links, once and for
all.

But more murders and murder attempts are made along the way because
another body is discovered in a parked automobile, the victim of a
gunshot, and yet another after an automobile rolls from a bridge after
its brakes have been severed, and then someone is handcuffed and pushed
from a boat into the harbor below, after photographs are burned to
destroy the evidence of "Dead Eye."

The cast is rounded out by Jason Stuart as Motel Manager Terry Portman,
Tom Alan Robbins as Assistant Manager, John Petlock as Michael, Dennis
Paladino as Bartender, and Martin Goslins as Houseman.

This episode marks one of the most recent roles to date each by Martin
Goslins and Stewart Moss, as well as the second of three "MSW" guest
roles for Ben Masters, the third of three each for Linda Purl and Lonny
Chapman, the first of five for Wayne Rogers in his role as Charlie
Garrett, and the fourth of five "MSW's" for John Petlock.

Lonny Chapman, acting on television and in film since 1951, has
unfortunately since passed.